The little man…

Your correspondent paid twice for a round trip on a tram in Helsinki within 80 minutes of the start of the first trip. At the start of the return trip I used the new system to check that my card was valid by placing it against the reader after choosing AB trip. There was no indication that I had a valid ticket and my card was debited for €2,80. There are no instructions in the tram or at the stops and I used the same method as was used under the old system. When I called HLS, Helsinki’s public transport company, I was told that I should have just placed my ticket on the reader to see if I had a valid ticket before trying to pay. There is no information on your website or in the tram in English about how to check if he ticket is valid. I expect many people fall into this software trap and that is not honest! I have now made a claim the return of my fare €2,80, but after one week I have heard nothing. HKL fine €80 when caught not paying their fare and it is only fair that they repay me what is owed. I sent them a screen print of my ticket history.

The Internet Cable company DNA promises me 100MG 24/7 service for the internet and TV. When it does not work you can call them but only when they are open during normal working hours plus a few extra hours. Forget calling them at weekends when the service stops… You call them on Monday and they say sorry but there was a problem. Nobody pays any compensation for the loss of 2 days…

Finnair has already been mentioned. Their website is often “down” and there is nothing you can do except patiently wait 10 minutes, 20 minutes and 30 minutes for somebody to answer the phone. The last booking took almost 3 hours and the ticket price crept up with the increasing number of futile attempts… Finnair also has the worst reputation for NOT paying for late flights. They do not care about the little folk, who are the customers.

If you go to a private doctor, you will get to pay for more and more and more lab tests and also receive recommendations to see a specialist… The question is do you really need to have all those testsand do you really need to see that specialist? Who knows what money-making machine they are developing. If you go to a public healthcare centre you normally get good service and do not have to pay for extra tests that you need or do not need…

Have you voted recently? The losing candidates always seem to have plenty to say, especially the ones who have been primed by their spin doctors. I love the media reports that, “politics is veering to the left now” when we have all been well and truly trounced by the right.I suppose that we are meant to be scared now that the evil left (whatever that is) has raised its devilish head.

I always thought that the Center Party and the Greens were more to the right and nobody in their “right” mind can ever think that the Finnish Social Democrats are anything but centralists. The Finnish Left party is lead by a really smart lady who can easily win any arguments against those formidable incumbents of the Conservatives and their lobbies who have sold their souls decades ago to those who take home millions each year in those lovely little domestic monopolies protected by thousands of lobbyists. These are the same companies that can extract tens of million of taxpayers’ cash as state aid to support rather ordinary activities. The same money could be a big boost for education and training but it is wasted on CEO’s and the like who retire at a young age (60 years) to Portugal. They are the real Socialists who care very little about the Little Man.…

In the UK, the police force has been down-sized by over 40 000 policemen. We have seen the same in Finland. The result is that the police are just not interested in small crimes – burglaries, and bike thefts. They are for the insurance companies to handle… The head of he national crime authority in the UK has recently said that organised crimes have grown massively. Is this what we really want to happen?

Education has failed many young men who cannot get jobs when the leave school. Finland has been reprimanded by the OECD about this because youth unemployment levels are far too high. Our friends in government have been cutting the education budget. Now we see the consequences. As far as crime and youth unemployment is concerned, it appears that the little man is just allowed to suffer all alone. That €2,80 is just a symptom of this huge and unfair disease.